The Cloisters, Brooklyn Bridge, and People!

 On Monday, April 13, we went in to Manhattan to go to the Cloisters museum with Elder and Sister Hancock's group.  It was really interesting, it was fun to be with the Hancocks and also the Strouds, who were in our area in Arizona and Doreen Pugh Young from Heber City, who is a good friend of my brother, Bob and his wife, Vicki. They're all CES missionaries in New Jersey.

This is outside the museum, looking across the Hudson river to New Jersey.

Here's a shot of the George Washington Bridge.

The Cloisters museum and gardens, the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe, was assembled from architectural elements, both domestic and religious, that largely date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century.

We loved the architecture and the artwork!

This is Doreen Young and I.

I saw from a Facebook post that Billy and Debbie Riley, friends from Texas, were in Manhattan the same day we went to the Cloisters so we arranged to meet them and had a fun visit.

On Wednesday of that same week we went down to the Brooklyn Bridge after our Temple shift.  It had been on Jeff's list of things to do and it was a really lovely day to walk across it.

Here's a view of lower Manhattan from the bridge.

On Friday of that week we made a third trip into the City to escort this great group of Elders and Sisters to the Temple.  They get to make a Temple trip every six months.

 We had our district over for dinner before transfer meeting the.  Sister Pieper, on the far left was finishing her mission and leaving for home after transfers, we'll miss her.  The others are Peterson, Sao, Me, Vandertoolen, Laxton, Maneha, Andreason, Opfar and Rowley.

Here's a good pic of our branch after Family Home Evening!

Entering Babylon and Other Random Things From The End of March and Beginning of April

We drive by this sign regularly and love it so now that the weather has gotten better we walk nearly every day and decided we needed to get a picture of Elder Bushman "ENTERING BABYLON"! 

We had a really nice etiquette dinner that I made brownie bowls to put ice cream in.  This is the Pinterest inspiration picture... below is my creation.  

Just so you know, some of the bowls looked better and they all tasted good!! The dinner was a success!!            

This was our first "up-close" view of the Empire State Bldg.  We went there when we took our walk down to Macy's.

We had heard that there was a flower show at Macy's so we walked there after one of our Temple days, it was a rainy, chilly day so the beautiful flowers gave us hope for spring.

The next week we ventured the opposite direction and found Elder Bushman's old mission home, we were disappointed to see the scaffolding on the front of it so we couldn't get a good view.  We're hoping the renovation/cleaning will be finished before we leave.  The picture is taken from Central Park.

Last Sunday we loved watching conference at our home.  We were glad that many members of the YSA Branch that we attend were able to come and watch with us.  The talks were inspirational and fed our spirits and there was lots of good food for our tummies between sessions.

These great young people really enjoy being around each other!

Last Wednesday we splurged and ate at Olive Garden in Times Square! Delicious, as usual!!

I don't know if I dare even say it, but I think spring has really arrived!  We've had a couple of days in a row that were sunny with the temperatures in the 60's!  We took a walk yesterday in Bethpage State Park which is very close to us and this is an early spring picture there.  My plan will be to get pics of all the seasons here, it's a beautiful place.  

Family Visit and More

We were very excited to have a visit from Alona, Robert and Matt early in March.  We packed a lot into the days they were here... on Tues. the 10th we went to Jones Beach, got White Castle burgers and went to Terryville for Institute.  On Wed. we had our big day in The City, while Alona and Robert went to the temple Elder Bushman, Matt and I walked the streets!  Here's Matt at Rockefeller Center!

We went inside St. Patrick's Cathedral, this is the organ with a beautiful stained glass window above the pipes.

We're in FAO Schwarz, next to a Lego Statue of Liberty.  Matt found a great magic kit that he bought!!

We picked up Alona and Robert and took the subway to lower Manhattan and Battery Park.

We had a good view of the real Statue of Liberty from here.

We did some more walking and saw the New York Stock Exchange.

Here's where George Washington took the oath of office to become our first President.

We're at Ground Zero, it's a very beautiful, reverent place.

This is one of 2 large reflecting ponds.

Here's another view of the area.  We got on the subway near here and went back to Times Square and walked around there for a while.

I just had to add this remembrance of the amount of walking we did that day!!  My feet ached like crazy but it was worth it and so fun to be with the Williams's!!  They got up the next morning and continued their long journey home.  We loved having them here!!

After a meeting at the South Shore church building a week ago, we discovered we were close to the place where Elder Bushman lived when he was on his mission here as a young Elder!!  This Is The Place!! The place in Patchogue where he spent a summer in 1970.

On Wednesday of this last week Elder Reed and Sister Sheryl Hancock came to the temple and after our shift working there we met up and went out to dinner then visited for a while.  It was fun to see them, they're serving a CES mission in New Jersey.  Sheryl is Elder Bushman's cousin.

After one of our classes in Plainview the other night we saw a raccoon scurry up this tree.  We wanted to capture the moment, if you look hard you can see him.

I had to include this picture of a rousing game of kickball!! Here's Elder B. running from 1st base to 2nd!!

And .... these last 2 pictures are of the 1st and second day of spring.  We got about 5 inches of snow.  I have to say, I'm ready for warm weather!!

This is driving to Bay Shore, it is beautiful - I felt like singing Christmas Carols!!

Temple trip, city walking and Visitors!

Back on Feb. 21st we drove into the City for a Temple trip with our Young Single Adult Branch of the Church.  It was our first time driving in the City on our mission.  It's fun to see all the things but public transportation is less stressful!

We went over the Queensborough Bridge, also called the 59th Street bridge.

This a view of the East River from the bridge.

Just looking at the buildings and the traffic!

Here are most of the people who attended.

The next Wednesday, the 25th, after our day at the Temple we decided to walk a different route.  First stop, Central Park!

We walked down 5th Avenue.  This is St. Patrick's Cathedral!  It is beautiful!

We saw Rockefeller Center and the famous ice rink.

This is for our son, Adam.  There's a Lego store right by the ice rink and this is the area we were standing in, all built in Legos!

On Thursday, the 26th, we had some fun visitors, Art and Gene Bushman (Sorry, this is us in the picture!)!! We went to the Copenhagen Bakery that their son, Eric, had told us about.  They had wonderful pastries and bread!!

The next day we went to the American Aviation Museum which is close to where we live.  I really enjoyed learning about all the planes that were built through the years.  This was where many planes were made in years past.

Elder Bushman had to try his hand at being a pilot!

Elder Art Bushman was a gunner!

Before they left on Saturday we went to Jones Beach.  Here is the secret to having a beautiful beach to yourself, go when it's 18 degrees with the wind blowing!!

I did love hearing the ocean and watching it.

And this is what we're really here for and what happens 5 days a week, Elder Bushman doing what he does best, teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ!